THE death of a prisoner in the Junee Correctional Centre was preventable and his prospects of survival were good if an ambulance had been called to the jail at an earlier stage, a coroner said yesterday.

Deputy state coroner Carl Milovanovich made the comment yesterday in handing down his findings at the end of an inquest into the death of David Robert Kentwell.

Mr Milovanovich found that 43-year-old Mr Kentwell died at the Junee District Hospital on January 27, 2008, from an acute myocardial infarction due to coronary atherosclerosis.

The coroner said he was satisfied staff at the prison's medical clinic had concerns for Mr Kentwell's welfare and made reasonable attempts to diagnose his condition and provide what they considered to be appropriate care.

However, he said there was little doubt the diagnosis was incorrect.

"The avoidable death of Mr Kentwell should serve as a reminder to medical and clinical staff that any prisoner who presents with continuing chest pain or discomfort that the first consideration should be to place high on any provisional diagnosis the possibility that the patient may be experiencing a cardiac event," Mr Milovanovich said.

He said if Mr Kentwell had presented to a hospital or a doctor's surgery at 9.30am � the time he went to the jail medical clinic � he would have have had an electrocardiograph (ECG) test immediately and monitored closely.

However, Mr Kentwell did not have an ECG until 1pm and an ambulance was called at 2.27pm when he started fitting after having a heart attack.

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"Mr Kentwell lost his liberty due to his criminal behaviour, however, a prisoner in custody should not receive any lesser medical attention to that that can be afforded to any other member of the community," Mr Milovanovich said.

He said the Junee jail's location - 40 kilometres from Wagga Base Hospital - may make it more prudent for jail clinical staff to err on the side of caution.